Bugs and Meditation

Dear Strange Gnats that Fly Together Over the White Line on the Riverview Trail and Get in My Eyes,
The other day I was running and one or two of you – who can tell, you’re so small and swarmy – ran into (or I ran into you) my contact lens, causing my eye to smart and spill with tears. I had to stop running, remove the contact.

I’m pretty blind. So when I took out the one contact, the trees around me smeared into Impressionistic-type drools of color. I felt a bit dizzy. I kept walking , but slowly, and the chirping, heavy-scented throng of leaves on either side of me pushed in closer, it seemed, and I felt utterly enveloped.

And alone. And alive.

It was kind of like meditation, or sleeping – senses distorted – colors turned up to a scream -I could feel my whole self trembling and present, and I could almost, it felt, utterly dissolve right there and never reappear.

So, Strange Flying Creatures Hovering Over the White Line,

Thank you.

You disrupted my run, you made me slow down, you blinded my eye, you gave me a moment of purity, a purity of a moment,

oh you may not be very attractive or sweet but your annoyance oh, what a gift it gave me.